Manny Pacquiao will defend his title against WBA welterweight champion Keith Thurman on July 20 at MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
At 40 years old, Pacquiao still has a massive audience, Thurman is 10 years younger, and remains undefeated with 29 wins and 22 knockouts.
Former WBO light welterweight champion Chris Algieri said Thurman never been in the ring with a fighter of Pacquiao’s caliber and believes the Filipino icon will beat the American if they go ahead with their fight.
“Honestly, I think Manny can win that fight. Manny’s incredible for one. It’s amazing at the age he’s at now, he’s still beating top fighters.” Algieri said.
“He’s still willing to take these top fights. I was live at the [Lucas] Matthysse fight in Malaysia, and I saw Manny, and I was curious to see how the fight was going to go. I knew he was going to win the fight, but I wanted to see how he was going to react with someone who is a real puncher.
“There were no problem pulling the trigger. His in and out was still there. His ability to see, pull the trigger, and react, which is what usually goes first with older guys was still there. That makes him an incredibly dangerous guy, even for the top welterweights now,” Algieri added.
Pacquiao defeat Algieri in 2014, the Filipino senator knocked him down six times in the fight in the process of winning by the scores 120-102, 119-103 and 119-103.
Manny Pacquiao is rolling back the years as he looks to unify his WBA welterweight title. (Source:www.youtube.com)
Errol Spence Jr., meanwhile, called out Pacquiao after a dominant victory against Mikey Garcia to retain his IBF welterweight world title at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
“I just think size-wise, he’s a little under-armed for some of those welterweights out there. But I think that not only from a boxing standpoint, and not only from a nostalgic standpoint, I would be in Manny’s corner for that fight,” Algieri said.
“I would never say that he can’t, but I wouldn’t want to see him in with a guy like Errol Spence. He’s too big. I wouldn’t want to see that. I wouldn’t want to see him in there with Shawn Porter. Shawn Porter is too rough, too big. But the Thurman fight, I think that would be a good fight for Manny. It could be,” he added.
